Hot melt adhesive systems have many applications in manufacturing and packaging. For example, thermoplastic hot melt adhesives are used for carton sealing, case sealing, tray forming, pallet stabilization, nonwoven applications including diaper manufacturing, and many other applications. Hot melt adhesives often come in the form of solid or semi-solid pellets or particulates. These hot melt adhesive particulates are melted into a liquid form by a melter, and the liquid hot melt adhesive is ultimately applied to an object such as a work piece, substrate or product by a dispensing device suitable to the application.
A supply of unmelted hot melt adhesive pieces (referred to variously herein as “particulate hot melt adhesive,” “hot melt adhesive particulate,” “adhesive particulate”, or simply “particulate”) must be maintained and delivered to the melter in order for the melter to produce the liquid hot melt adhesive used by the dispensing device. For example, it is known for a person to employ a scoop or bucket to retrieve hot melt adhesive particulate from a bulk supply, and to deliver the particulate to a melter. Typically, this involves filling a hopper or other container associated with the melter one scoop of hot melt adhesive particulate at a time. This requires the person to handle the hot melt adhesive particulate closely, which may be undesirable because hot melt adhesive dust may be stirred up during handling. In addition, transferring hot melt adhesive particulate in this manner is prone to waste caused by spillage.
Other challenges relate to issues surrounding the propensity for particulates of hot melt adhesive to become stuck together under certain storage and use conditions. If particulates stick or agglomerate together, it becomes difficult to feed the particulate into a hopper and/or into an associated melter tank. Once the particulates are in the hopper associated with a melter tank, and the hopper is separated from the melter tank by a particulate feed device, clumping and sticking of particulates can be caused by heat emanating from the melter tank. Therefore, improvements generally related to these and related areas of hot melt adhesive dispensing systems are needed.